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Add an EventKelpie Wilson - Judi Bari Survives Character Assassination
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 19 January 2005
Some women are so strong you have to kill them three times to make sure they stay dead.I remember the first time they tried to kill Judi Bari in 1990:
I was sitting on the deck enjoying the spring sunshine on the first morning of leisure I'd had in months - we had just wrapped up the signature campaign to get the Forests Forever sustainable logging initiative on the California ballot - when the phone rang. It was Betty Ball from the Mendocino Environmental Center in Ukiah telling me that Judi's car had been bombed and she was in the hospital in Oakland.
My first call was to the Seeds of Peace collective house. A stranger answered the phone. "Do you know what happened to Judi and Darryl?" I asked. "Yeah, I heard they blew themselves up," he replied, and that's when I knew I was talking to a cop who was in the middle of ransacking my friends' home.
I had been at the Seeds house the night before along with Judi and a dozen other people, finalizing our schedule for the Redwood Summer action campaign. We planned to host several thousand activists from all over the country in a summer of non-violent protest actions against the logging of ancient redwoods.
The bomb had been placed under the driver's seat of Judi's car and went off when she hit the brakes in the middle of an Oakland traffic jam. Over the next few weeks, while Judi lay in the hospital with a fractured pelvis and ruptured nerves, the FBI and Oakland police charged her with transporting a bomb and began to investigate her and her associates for possession of bomb-making materials. No evidence was found, and eventually the charges were dropped, but the FBI never broadened their investigation to include real suspects like the timber industry and an anti-abortion fanatic who sent a letter claiming responsibility (the "Lord's Avenger" letter).
Judi survived the bombing, famously quipping: "They blew up the wrong end of me," meaning her pelvis and not her mouth.
Judi continued her work as a leader in both the ecology and labor movements, but she was in constant and excruciating pain. Still, she wanted very much to live, to see her children grow up, to win more battles for the redwoods and to prevail in the lawsuit she was bringing against the FBI for falsely accusing her of carrying a bomb.
Judi died in 1997 of a sudden and aggressive cancer. A dedicated team of friends and supporters carried on the lawsuit and in 2002 they won an historic judgment of $4.4 million against the FBI and Oakland police for violating the civil rights of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. The bulk of the jury's damage award was for the First Amendment violation of framing the pair as violent terrorists, effectively silencing their free speech and political organizing in defense of the forests.
The latest attempt to smear and silence the voice of Judi Bari comes in the form of a supposed biography by neocon writer Kate Coleman titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari.
The Judi Bari that Kate Coleman creates in the pages of her book is not a person whom I recognize. The book has plenty of color and detail that rings true, but that's because so much has been written about Judi and by Judi herself that documents the Earth First! movement and Judi's role in it. Coleman had mountains of already published material to lift from and she used it to construct a myth based on a template provided by her publisher, the right-wing Encounter Books headed by neocons Peter Collier and David Horowitz.
Encounter Books is a project of Encounter for Culture and Education, a tax exempt, non-profit corporation that is part of that well-funded conservative intellectual think tank establishment we are always hearing about. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the Encounter for Culture Foundation received over $4.6 million from right wing funders like the Bradley Foundation between 1991 and 2002. Its books include an attack on Title IX funding for women's sports and a hit piece on Hillary Clinton called The Hillary Trap, where pundit Laura Ingraham warns that Hillary is a pathetic victim and a terrible women's role model because she did not leave her husband over his adultery. One Amazon.com reviewer called the book "character assassination."
Character assassination is the best description of Coleman's work on Judi Bari. To call Coleman Judi Bari's "biographer" is an insult to any genuine biographer. You could call her a collage artist because that is what she does, snipping and ripping bits out of Judi's life and pasting them into a new picture, adding ugly embroidery of her own design. The palette of colors is there, but the portrait is defaced.
Coleman has morphed a funny, smart, loving, creative and sometimes temperamental and egotistical activist into a pathetic victim of domestic violence who attempted to take out a contract on her ex-husband's life and whose rigid ideology inclined her toward violence. This is an utterly false picture and it is suspiciously similar to the picture that the FBI tried to paint of her as an eco-terrorist.
Coleman never met Judi Bari. She never contacted or spoke to most of Bari's close associates. Instead, as primary sources, she chose to publish a number of outright lies from four avowed enemies of Judi Bari, a boatload of not-so-swift-veterans of the Mendocino Timber Wars.
One of these persons, source of the allegation that Judi sought to kill her ex-husband, is Irv Sutley, an unstable character who, also without evidence, accused the same ex-husband of planting the bomb in Judi's car. Both Judi and journalist Steve Talbot were convinced that Sutley was a police agent, possibly working for the FBI. The other three are profiled on a web site (http://www.colemanhoax.com) that friends and associates have set up to document the lies and errors in the Coleman book.
Judi's long time friend Betty Ball said: "It's absurd that such a lie-filled book could be published when there's so much information readily available to expose it."
When not promoting outright lies, Coleman turns to distortion and innuendo. Here's an example of her method:
"Potential violence against Bari and Cherney was implied in the threats they were now receiving in letters and in flyers, about which they complained loudly, but without ever acknowledging that their provocative utterances and publications only intensified the climate of hostility. In fact, Cherney had put out his own not-so-veiled death warrant against Maxxam's Charles Hurwitz." (The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, p 137-8)
This paragraph accomplishes three things. First it lies about Darryl Cherney's Charles Hurwitz poster. The poster offered a "$50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest, conviction and jailing of corporate raider Charles Hurwitz." Veiled or unveiled, this is not a death threat.
Second, it trivializes the real death threats that Judi was receiving that included things like a picture of her in crosshair sights, a dead cat on her doorstep and numerous letters promising to kill or rape her.
Third, it says that the death threats were justified because of Bari and Cherney's "provocative utterances." These provocative words, Coleman implies, were tit-for-tat threats of violence, which is untrue. Bari and Cherney had real critiques of corporate crime and government policies. They delighted in their lampoons but never threatened anyone with physical harm. To say they deserved it or brought it upon themselves is to say that free speech deserves no protection when it provokes and annoys.
Fortunately, a real biography of Judi Bari is forthcoming from Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Susan Faludi. Judi's own book, Timber Wars, is available from Common Courage Press.
Judi Bari's reputation will survive this latest assassination attempt, but it's important to ask why she is still being targeted. The answer is because, like Hillary Clinton, she was and still is a powerful role model for women.
Judi was articulate and smart. She was extremely effective as an organizer and pioneered the effort to bring labor unions and environmentalists together. She was outspokenly pro-choice. But the number one reason to target her is because she showed no fear and never backed down an inch. That is also the reason why she won the admiration of activists all over the world.
As activists we need and deserve our heroes. As realists we know that they have feet of clay, but that only endears them to us more because we recognize that the real hero is the community and we are all a part of it.
Kelpie Wilson is the t r u t h o u t environment editor. A veteran forest protection activist and mechanical engineer, she writes from her solar-powered cabin in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwest Oregon.
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012005X.shtml
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Sweeney's self-serving website fudges some key facts about the bomb timer. The timer was not set to detonate the bomb, as implied by Sweeney, but to arm a motion fuse. The motion fuse could have armed at any time when Bari's car was parked at the Seeds of Peace house in Oakland, allowing the possibility that the timer was set when Sweeney was known to have access to Bari's car in Mendocino County.
Typewriter forensics tie the "Lord's Avenger" hoax letter to documents known to originate from Sweeney.
The Oakland cops and FBI barfed the bombing investigation in the most unprofessional and sophomoric way possible. Elementary forensic evidence that blew away the theory that Bari was knowingly transporting the bomb in the back seat was ignored. Standard operating procedure in homicide cases includes scrutinizing the victim's personal life to see if any intimates or associates have a motive. That standard was clearly ignored. Bari was clearly denied equal protection and an unbiased, thorough investigation, however, the COINTELPRO theory is a cult fantasy. Adding another wrinkle, Bari's own words and actions cast reasonable suspicion on herself. She had on several recent occasions publicly commented that sabotage was justified. She and Sweeney also directed her followers not to co-operate with the bombing investigation. That only makes sense if one or the other was compromised by guilty knowledge.
Norm Vroman's failure to investigate Sweeney for the bombing of Bari is a dereliction of duty equal to those committed by the Oakland cops and the FBI. The only explanation I can think of is that he doesn't want to upset the Bari cultists that form an important part of his constituency.
DNA evidence exists that bears directly on the originator of documents tied to the bomber. Mr. Sweeney could easily exhonorate himself, if innocent, by volunteering a DNA sample. He has chosen not to do so.
It's a shame that the Bari cult has co-opted so much of the "progressive" community on the north coast into its groupthink, and that it's being left to neocon assholes to air vital information about the Bari case.
Dear Atheist:
I am not a member of the Judi Bari "cult"--I would be the first to agree that there is one (and I say this as someone who knew Judi albeit only for a couple of years, and not as well as I would have liked), but there are those of us who agree that Kate Coleman's book is irresponsible at best and a deliberate hit piece at worst. I intend to respond to each of your points:
The posting and linked websites would have the reader believe that the idea that Mike Sweeney bombed Judi Bari originated with the likes of Anderson, Sutley, Stenberg, etc. That's not true at all. The story broke as a result of Steven Talbot's investigation of the Bari bombing case for KQED's California Close-up. Talbot started out sympathetic to Ms. Bari and partial to the theory that the bombing was an anti-environmentalist or anti-choice right wing attack. The countervailing evidence convinced him that Sweeney was the most likely suspect and most likely motivated by a divorce that was potentially explosive because of mutual guilty knowledge. Bruce Anderson's subsequent contributions are well-substantiated, however, his unfortunate habit of mixing good factual reporting with acerbic hyperbole makes him an easy target. Sweeney's self-serving website fully exploits every irrelevant weakness on Anderson's part. Also, Alexander Cockburn has on several occasions weighed in as a skeptic of the Bari cult's version of events and as an advocate of the domestic assassination theory. Since Cockburn is a fairly prestigious name in alternative journalism he is not as easy to attack as the others, so the Bari cult simply ignores him.
Bruce Anderson doesn't just mix "good factual reporting" with "acernic hyperbole"; he also mixes in outright lies. This is hardly an "irrelevant weakness".
Alexander Cockburn isn't a 100% reliable source either. While he is a good spokeperson for the left on many issues, he has incredibly baffling positions on at least two issues. The first is global warming; he has been known to ascribe that to "natural causes". Almost every reputable scientist agrees that Global Warming is currently a human-caused problem. Secondly, Cockburn supports the "single-bullet-theory" assassination of John F Kennedy. While Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" mixes fact with fiction, the facts in that movie are supported by the evidence. I am convinced that Cockburn is not necessarily an unimpeachable source when it comes to the Judi Bari bombing.
Sweeney's self-serving website fudges some key facts about the bomb timer. The timer was not set to detonate the bomb, as implied by Sweeney, but to arm a motion fuse. The motion fuse could have armed at any time when Bari's car was parked at the Seeds of Peace house in Oakland, allowing the possibility that the timer was set when Sweeney was known to have access to Bari's car in Mendocino County.
That may indeed be true. I have maintained, since the Sweeney angle was introduced to the debate, that he may well have been the one who placed the bomb in the car. I have also maintained--and those of you who adhere to the "Sweeney did it" camp have never publically acknowledged the possibility--that Sweeney was working for the FBI and the bombing indeed was an "anti-environmentalist or anti-choice right wing attack". That is a plausible scenario as far as I am concerned. In fact, Sweeney would have been the perfect foil for the government. They could have threatened him with all sorts of horrible penalties (in exchange for his past transgressions) if he didn't do their bidding.
Typewriter forensics tie the "Lord's Avenger" hoax letter to documents known to originate from Sweeney.
"Typerwiter forensics" do no such thing. In fact, "typewriter forensics" are inexact science at best and quite possibly Hollywood-inspired pseudo-science at worst. There are literally thousands of typewriters still in existence, and fifteen years ago, when the bombing happened, there were still hundreds of thousands. There is absolutely no conclusive way to prove that a letter originated from a specific typewriter. The idea that this is so is simply ludicrous.
Furthermore, it's not just "typewriter forensics", but also sentence structure and writing style analysis which has been used to link the Lords Avenger Letter to Mike Sweeney. This is similarly questionable science.
Finally, even if the Lords Avenger Letter was produced on Mike Sweeney's typewriter, there is no proof that Mike Sweeney typed it! Even if Mike Sweeney typed it, that doesn't automatically prove that he was working alone or that the government, timber industry, or right wing thugs weren't involved! The conclusions that the "Sweeney did it" camp jump to are as bad as or worse than the supposed falsehoods and knee jerk reactions they accuse the "Bari cult" of peddaling.
The Oakland cops and FBI barfed the bombing investigation in the most unprofessional and sophomoric way possible. Elementary forensic evidence that blew away the theory that Bari was knowingly transporting the bomb in the back seat was ignored.
GOOD GRAVY!!! The FBI and OPD photographs of the bomb explosion themselves show that the bomb was placed under the driver's seat! Judi Bari's injuries also represent irrefutable evidence that the bomb was beneath--and not behind--her. Now you are making stuff up.
Standard operating procedure in homicide cases includes scrutinizing the victim's personal life to see if any intimates or associates have a motive.
Suppose Standard Operating Procedures are deliberately ignored in order to frame the victim, which is the theory that Bari et. al. have maintained from the beginning. Is that not an equally plausible hypothesis for why the OPD and FBI didn't conduct an investigation?
Bari was clearly denied equal protection and an unbiased, thorough investigation, however, the COINTELPRO theory is a cult fantasy.
What evidence do you have that proves this conclusion? How does it contradict the reams of evidence (such as heavily censored FBI memos later redacted by the Bari legal team) to the contrary?
Adding another wrinkle, Bari's own words and actions cast reasonable suspicion on herself. She had on several recent occasions publicly commented that sabotage was justified.
"Sabotage" and "Violence" are entirely different things. "Sabotage", as defined quite adequately by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn doesn't even necessarily mean the destruction of things. Violence, on the other hand, is something that Judi Bari openly campaigned against.
The "Sweeney did it" camp likes to argue that Judi Bari is a liar, because she advocated Monkeywrenching and Tree Spiking, and this therefore discredits her as a victim of the bombing. I don't agree. To begin with, Bari called for an end to tree spiking on April 11, 1990. The bombing happened on May 24, 1990, more than a month later!
She and Sweeney also directed her followers not to co-operate with the bombing investigation. That only makes sense if one or the other was compromised by guilty knowledge.
It was not a "bombing investigation", carried out by police, the FBI, or any other recognized authorities; it was a campaign waged by Bruce Anderson, et. al. who had a history of personal attacks against Bari & co. While Bari and Sweeney may have erred tactically in their response to the "investigation", that doesn't prove guilt.
Norm Vroman's failure to investigate Sweeney for the bombing of Bari is a dereliction of duty equal to those committed by the Oakland cops and the FBI. The only explanation I can think of is that he doesn't want to upset the Bari cultists that form an important part of his constituency.
I can think of several explanations other than yours: (1) The bombing happened in Oakland--far outside Vroman's jurisdiction in Mendocino County; (2) Vroman is an idiot; (3) Vroman isn't an idiot, but the FBI and/or the Oakland Police told him to keep out of it; (4) Vroman isn't an idiot, and he doesn't believe that there is any credible evidence that Sweeney is a suspect.
DNA evidence exists that bears directly on the originator of documents tied to the bomber. Mr. Sweeney could easily exhonorate himself, if innocent, by volunteering a DNA sample. He has chosen not to do so.
Like I said, Sweeney may indeed by guilty, but his unwillingness to submit to a DNA test is not proof of that.
It's a shame that the Bari cult has co-opted so much of the "progressive" community on the north coast into its groupthink, and that it's being left to neocon assholes to air vital information about the Bari case.
It'a an even BIGGER shame that the "Sweeney did it" cult has co-opted so much of the Bari critics' in the "progressive community" and I have to spend so much time defending Judi Bari's reputation despite my criticisms of those you call the "Bari Cult". Furthermore, Kate Coleman's book is a detestable piece of crap, filled with factual errors and outright lies. It is also regrettable that Bruce Anderson--who's paper the Anderson Valley Advertiser (the name is a coincidence, by the way) which has provided me with so much useful information about the struggles of timber workers for better working conditions AND more sustainable logging practices--has discredited himself so severely.
And you, "athiest", are nothing of the sort. A true "atheist" would investigate the facts more carefully. SHAME ON YOU!
What bothers me A LOT about the Bari camp is that people will absolutely support the theory that she was the victim of some type of government/timber/right wing without even considering that it could be her ex-husband or even looking at any evidence. 90% of women who are murdered are murdered by a current or ex-intimate partner. Its just common sense that Sweeney should be thoroughly scrutinized.
Reporter Steve Talbott, who has more credibility than Coleman, claims that several of Judi's friends privately approached him to say to look at Sweeney way back in 91. He also claims Judi told him that Sweeney burned down an airplane hangar in Sonoma with a incendiary device that he had built. Is Talbott lying about this? If its true it shows that Sweeney also has knowledge of explosive devices. (Sweeney also made an apparently accurate fake replica of the bomb that exploded in Bari's car).
Also what about Bari trying to hire Irv Sutley to murder her ex? Is Talbott lying about that too? Why has the Bari camp stopped pointing their finger at Sutley after accusing him of being a cointelpro agent? Why has Bari's family been damn quiet about this? Her sister Gina Kolata quipped one time that Judi probably bombed herself.
Talbott was the first to point the finger at Sweeney back in 1991 in his KQED video on the bombing. Since then this theory has slowly gained traction.
Sweeney has at least 1.motive 2. the knowledge of how to do the bombing
Its been almost 15 years since the bombing and no one has been arrested. There is a lot of other weird stuff that insider Bari people are hiding. Steve-- I suggest that they need be pressured to come clean with any information they have.
As far as Coleman goes-- a cursory look says she lacks credibilty. HOWEVER she should be given a public forum to air any evidence she might have and then it should be thoroughly scrutinized as well.
Dear Bird:
While I appreciate your acknowledgement of my having done the work to study this issue, you seem to be twisting my words around a bit to make it sound like I am a part of the "Sweeney Did It" camp. hat is not the case.
I am in neither camp, and my position is that Sweeney could have done it, he is a likely suspect, but if he did take part in the conspiracy to injure Judi bari, he was working for the FBI and Big Timber.
I think that the Bari camp is actually 99% correct about what happened, and the nly error they have made is in ignoring the possibility that Sweeney was part of the COINTELPRO team.
Assuming that Sweeney is guilty, my guess is that the FBI probably has a rap sheet on him light-years long and they threatened to do things to him so unspeakably horrible that he was manipulated into participating in their vile scheme. Perhaps they manipulated him also due to his failing relationship with Judi Bari.
Here's why Judi would cover that up, if she knew about it--and believe me, when you think about it this way, the covering for Sweeney is far less Macchiavellian than Bruce Anderson or any of Bari's other detractors make it out to be. Judi would know that Sweeney was an almost unwilling patsy.
Remember that the bomb was supposed to have KILLED Bari, but it didn't quite work. If Judi, et. al. even so much as hinted that Sweeney was the guilty party, the FBI, OPD, and Big Timber could conduct what is known as a "ritual purge". They could credibly sacrifice their pawn (Sweeney) and make the case look like a domestic squabble. This is similar to what happened with Lee Harvey Oswald and the lower level soldiers who engaged in torture in Iraq. When the people start investigating, the powers that be sacrifice their pawns and keep playing. Judi was smart enough not to fall for that.
Whether knowingly or not, those that argue that Sweeney acted alone (assuming he is guilty) are playing right into the government's hands.
As for Irv Sutley, suppose Sutley was ALSO involved?
There is a lot of other weird stuff that insider Bari people are hiding.
Like WHAT?!? I have heard this claim many times, but I have seen not one shred of evidence that this is so.
Her sister Gina Kolata quipped one time that Judi probably bombed herself.
Based on what I have heard, Kolata is an IDIOT. She routinely trashes environmentalism in the Times. Of course, that is secondhand knowledge, so I could be wrong, but my point is thinking something may have happened is not evidence that it actually happened.
Reporter Steve Talbott, who has more credibility than Coleman, claims that several of Judi's friends privately approached him to say to look at Sweeney way back in 91. He also claims Judi told him that Sweeney burned down an airplane hangar in Sonoma with a incendiary device that he had built. Is Talbott lying about this? If its true it shows that Sweeney also has knowledge of explosive devices. (Sweeney also made an apparently accurate fake replica of the bomb that exploded in Bari's car).
That is well known. Judi discusses this in Timber Wars ("Who Bought Steve Talbot?"). Her dismissal of Sweeney as the suspect may be genuine (she may not have known, at least not in 1991 when she wrote the article) or a strategic cover (for reasons I mentioned above.
The "Sweeney (acted alone and) Did It" crowd often cites that article as a shrill personal attack on Talbot, which is an utterly unfair accusation. Bari raises some very excellent points aboutthe FBI, COINTELPRO, internal memos from MAXXAM and LP, the corporate-funded, right-wing, anti-environmentalist terrorist group called the "Sahara Club", the Oakland Police, and various right-wing thugs based in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties.
What I want to know is why so many people don't simply put two and two together and accept that Sweeney may be the patsy and FBI stooge that Bari, et. al. were victimized by? Even if he is the guy, why, then, does the FBI and all the rest somehow become any less guilty of this vile conspiracy? Remember that just one year earlier, the FBI knowingly entrapped four Earth First!ers in Arizona (including Mark Davis, Mark Baker, and Peg Millet) using an undercover operative (Mike Tait, AKA Mike Fein) in a sting operation called "Operation Thermcon". The Earth First!ers did time (for using an acetylene blow torch (purchased from the FBI by Tait!!!) to cut a small hole in one of the metal towers on a set of power lines (the cutting was ALSO done by Tait!!!), EVEN THOUGH THE GOVERNMENT ADMITTED THAT THEY WERE ENTRAPPED!
Don't tell me that there wasn't a conspiracy!
You put up an interesting theory even if I disagree with some of the particulars. I urge you to keep posting on this subject.
PS I wasn't trying to put you in the "Sweeney did it" camp
if Judi Bari wanted to keep her life private then she should not have chose to become a public figure. and as for the alleged character assassination well, she has brought most of it on her self. as she seems to be giving Cortney Love a run for her money. now with these picturesand her B-movie coming out, things will be very interesting.
on the forest defence side of things she has not been directly involved for quite some time. except for her PR work. she pretty much does her own thing, and we are ok with that
Ongerth repeats Bari's unsubstantiated allegation that Steven Talbot was "bought". There is no attempt to debate the merits of Talbot's findings. Talbot's findings provide the foundation for the reporting by Bruce Anderson, Alexander Cockburn, and others.
The "you can't believe anything this guy says because I disagree with him on other issues" argument, as applied by Ongerth to Anderson and Cockburn, is silly. Each separate issue needs to be debated on its merits. We may disagree with Cockburn about global warming and the JFK assassination, but that has no bearing on the Bari bombing case. Couldn't we just as logically discount all the evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't the JFK assassin because of Oliver Stone's flights into fantasy, if we were to apply that standard consistently? Anderson's reporting as a whole is erratic in quality and you have to separate the wheat from the chaff, but the reporting on the Bari case stands out as quality work. Sweeney's self-serving website uses incidences of Anderson's (admittedly mean-spirited) satire to discredit him as a liar. Mr. Anderson may be an asshole, but he deserves credit for good work when he's onto something serious. His revision of his initial opinions on the bombing based on new factual information required him to put his integrity above his ego, and his willingness to do so is to his credit. Too many journalists are unwilling to do so.
Ongerth's dismissal of of typewriter forensics as a "Hollywood-inspired pseudo-science" is ludicrous. It is a well established practice in document authentication dating back to at least World War II, when it was used by OSS (predecessor of CIA) to help authenticate documents. Mechanical irregularities from wear and tear allow some pretty good statistical estimates of the probabilities that documents were produced on the same machine.
If Ongerth thinks that my previous posting is arguing that the bomb was behind, and not underneath, the driver's seat of Bari's car, he should go back and read it more carefully.
Ongerth's use of the term "redacted" made me laugh. He really should consult the dictionary.
All the documents obtained by the Bari legal team show is a sloppy investigation, not a COINTELPRO operation. Sloppy investigations driven by police prejudice and groupthink are all too common and many people have been victimized by them. That does not make them victims of COINTELPRO operations.
The theory that the Bari bombing was a COINTELPRO operation underestimates their sophistication. The government has much more effective and less risky means of killing someone at their disposal than pipe bombs. The theory that Sweeney or Sutley were recruited by the feds for an assassination is absurd on its face. The risks of involving either of them would have been too great. The feds are often pretty stupid, but they're not THAT stupid.
The COINTELPRO theory fits the self-important notions of the Bari cultists, so they continue to promote it based on flimsy "evidence" as a way of promoting themselves. It has the added benefit of providing a ready-made smear against anyone who displeases them and a ready-made scapegoat for whatever misfortunes they may face. The cruel smear campaign against Sutley waged by Bari and her groupies was a key factor leading to the falling-out between Bari and Anderson.
The line between "sabotage" and "violence" gets pretty thin or obliterated entirely when someone happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bari was not ethically opposed to blowing up inanimate objects. When asked about a recent powerline bombing in the months leading up to Redwood Summer, she said "desperate times call for desperate measures." Ongerth's contention that the "Sweeney did it" camp is trying to discredit her as a victim of the bombing is strange. She clearly was the victim of an attempt on her life. She also did and said some really stupid things that brought suspicion on herself.
Ongerth told an obvious lie when he stated that the bombing investigation was "not a 'bombing investigation', carried out by police, the FBI, or any other recognized authorities; it was a campaign waged by Bruce Anderson, et al. who had a history of personal attacks against Bari & co." Does Ongerth really think that Bruce Anderson was conducting the bombing investigation and not the Oakland cops? Also, Anderson was firmly on record as sympathetic to Bari while the cops were investigating her.
If the bomb was placed in Bari's car in Mendocino County, it is within the jurisdiction of the Mendocino DA's office. Vroman has clearly not done all he could to get to the bottom of the Bari bombing case. Maybe he is an idiot, as Ongerth suggests.
Ongerth's postings are an example of the mentality that leads the IWW to be an irrelevant sect that has become completely alienated from real working people. It is not a real union anymore; it is a playground for lumpen pseudointellectuals that wish to romanticize themselves with images of its former glory. Anyone who is perceived as not adhering to their version of political correctness is eviscerated.
You assume it was the government and you assume that they wanted to kill her. Neither of those is a given. It is just as likely that it was a merc in the employ of the timber industry, and the government covered up for him because that's what government does. It sides with bosses against workers. That's it main function in society.
Whoever it was, he did not mean to kill her. He meant to maim her. This was an act or terrorism. It was intended to terrorise the rest of us. The prospect of being the next to get maimed is a *lot* more terrifying thant the prospect of being the next to die.
my recollection is that Darryl Cherney and others said that they would use the money obtained from the judgment to further investigate this episode and discover who really tried to kill Judi Bari
and, then, wasn't there a settlement on the case pending appeal?
so, has the judgment gone final, and, if so, what efforts are being financed to investigate the bombing?
--Richard
Dear Athiest:
You accuse me of "put[ting] together screeds based on sheer conjecture and innuendo, selective factual omission, and unsubstantiated smears", as well as "throw[ing] in a few lies.", but based on this screed of your own, it strikes me as the pot calling the lettle black. Rather than get into a pissing match with you, I will simply let the facts speak for themselves, starting with a baseless personal attack or two;
Ongerth's postings are an example of the mentality that leads the IWW to be an irrelevant sect that has become completely alienated from real working people. It is not a real union anymore; it is a playground for lumpen pseudointellectuals that wish to romanticize themselves with images of its former glory. Anyone who is perceived as not adhering to their version of political correctness is eviscerated.
I'll just remind everyone that the IWW is currently working with over 200 truckers in the Port of Stockton; this is well documented, but just in case our "atheist" correspondant here doubts me, I challenge him (her?) to visit this web page.
Furthermore, "Atheist" implies that I am not genuine working class myself--perhaps some couch surfing wing nut or trust fund benifciary. This is also inaccurate. I happen to be a ferryboat deckhand, and I have been so for about seven years. I work 40-hours a week. I just concluded a ten-hour day working on the Alcatraz run. Today, myself and a co-worker were nearly bathed in raw sewage (that we have to routinely pump off of the island).
Is it just possible that "Athiest" here doubts the merits of his/her own argument and must resort to bogus sterotypes and personal attacks to bolster a weak argument?
Returning to the beginning of the screed from "Atheist":
Mr. Ongerth, like other members of the Bari cult. . .
I am NOT a member of the "Bari Cult" (I don't think they'd induct me if I wanted to be). I just don't happen to be a member of Atheist's cult, and therefore, using the "Either you're for us or against us" logic of the Bush regime, I am therefore a member of the enemy camp.
For the record, I am not on speaking terms with Darryl Cherney, I AM on speaking terms with Anna Marie Stenberg and Andy Caffery. This has been so since 1998. I will state for the record, once again, very carefully so that thee is absolutely no confusion what-so-ever for our Atheist friend here: I ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY THAT MIKE SWEENEY COULD BE THE INDIVIDUAL WHO BOMBED JUDI BARI (to put it in simple, vulgar terms).
Ongerth repeats Bari's unsubstantiated allegation that Steven Talbot was "bought". There is no attempt to debate the merits of Talbot's findings. Talbot's findings provide the foundation for the reporting by Bruce Anderson, Alexander Cockburn, and others.
Wrong again Atheist. Here is exactly what I said:
That is well known. Judi discusses this in Timber Wars ("Who Bought Steve Talbot?"). Her dismissal of Sweeney as the suspect may be genuine (she may not have known, at least not in 1991 when she wrote the article) or a strategic cover (for reasons I mentioned above.The "Sweeney (acted alone and) Did It" crowd often cites that article as a shrill personal attack on Talbot, which is an utterly unfair accusation. Bari raises some very excellent points about the FBI, COINTELPRO, internal memos from MAXXAM and LP, the corporate-funded, right-wing, anti-environmentalist terrorist group called the "Sahara Club", the Oakland Police, and various right-wing thugs based in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties.
NOWHERE in those two paragraphs do I state that I agree with Judi Bari--that Steve Talbott was "bought"--nor do I state ANYWHERE that Steve Talbott is in any way wrong by suggesting that Sweeney COULD BE the actual bomber.
What I DID say was that Judi Bari was justified in asking why Talbott didn't investigate the FBI, the Oakland Police, MAXXAM, Louisiana Pacific, the Sahara Club, and various right-wing wise use groups in northern California.
That the FBI was engaged in COINTELPRO style disruptions of Earth First! is a proven FACT. Do I really need to rehash "Operation Thermcon" for you Atheist?
What were OAKLAND Police doing searching the cars of Earth First!ers at a demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge a month before the bombing? For those of you who need a geography lesson, the Golden Gate Bridge is nowhere NEAR Oakland. It's not even near the same COUNTY as Oakland. The Oakland Police were FAR out of their jurisdiction. Oddly enough, however a month later, the bombing of Judi Bari took place. . . in OAKLAND. Does that sound like a coincidence to you?!?
The internal PALCO and LP memos calling for and praising violence against Earth First! are a matter of public record.
The Sahara Club and various "Wise Use" groups published numerous violent and threatening leaflets directed towards Earth First! They would most certainly have been suspects in this case.
The "you can't believe anything this guy says because I disagree with him on other issues" argument, as applied by Ongerth to Anderson and Cockburn, is silly.
Yes it is, but I never made such an argument. The argument I made is that "you have to be skeptical of an argument made by someone who is clearly WRONG on other issues". I don't "disagree" with Cockburn on Global Warming, the FACTS disagree with Alexander Cockburn on Global Warming. To dismiss that as a difference of opinion on my part is a manipulative attempt at rhetorical sleight of hand by Atheist.
Anderson's reporting as a whole is erratic in quality and you have to separate the wheat from the chaff, but the reporting on the Bari case stands out as quality work.
No it doesn't. Anderson has made one plausible speculation (that Sweeney had a hand in the Judi Bari bombing) which is a logical (but by no means proven) hypothesis. Rather than stick to factual reporting and investigations of that hypothesis, Anderson has leaped to the bizarre conclusion that Sweeney acted alone, which is a conclusion NOT supported by any of the existing evidence, but based solely on Anderson's personal assessment of Judi Bari's imperfect character--and that assessment is sullied further by bitterness and personal bias. Anderson has ghost-written written fake letters by Judi Bari and Mike Sweeney and published them in his newspapers claiming them to be genuine documents, and he has engaged in mean-spritied and unwarranted personal ad-hominem attacks against many of those who disagree with him publically. This hardly constitutes "quality work" by MY standards, and I suspect that many share my opinion.
His revision of his initial opinions on the bombing based on new factual information required him to put his integrity above his ego, and his willingness to do so is to his credit.
You've got to be KIDDING!!!! How can anyone who ghost writes fake "admissions" have any integrity at all? I suppose Atheist has a different definition of "integrity"?
Ongerth's dismissal of of typewriter forensics as a "Hollywood-inspired pseudo-science" is ludicrous. It is a well established practice in document authentication dating back to at least World War II, when it was used by OSS (predecessor of CIA) to help authenticate documents. Mechanical irregularities from wear and tear allow some pretty good statistical estimates of the probabilities that documents were produced on the same machine.
Atheist, it is YOUR statement that is ludicrous, not mine:
To begin with, just because something is "well established" (an unproven assessment by the way) doesn't mean that it is an accurate tool. Astrology and Religion are "well established" practices, but I think most of us would debate their truthfulness.
"Pretty good statistical estimates" are not enough to provide "proof beyond a shadow of a doubt", which is required in a court of law (and in any case, if it could be proven that the Lord's Avenger Letter WAS produced on Sweeney's typewritter, it doesn't prove that Sweeney typed the letter himself. It also doesn't prove that the person who wrote the letter is the same person who planted the bomb!
Whether or not the OSS believes in a practice doesn't prove its effectiveness. Perhaps they use the practice because it sometimes works, and sometimes may be good enough for the CIA (though none of us should have any faith in the infalibility of US intelligence agencies)
Finally, it's not just the typewriter itself that has been (questionably) linked to Sweeney; it's his WRITING STYLE. If "typewriter forensics" are somewhat questionable, "writing style analysis" is EXTREMELY questionable. I can say this with some degree of expertise, since I happen to have (among others) a degree in Art History. Art historians argue profusely among themselves over the provenance of works of art whose origins are not conclusively known. What makes you think that writing style is any easier to determine?
If Ongerth thinks that my previous posting is arguing that the bomb was behind, and not underneath, the driver's seat of Bari's car, he should go back and read it more carefully.
My mistake. I didn't catch the "evidence that blew away the theory" part of the sentence.
Ongerth's use of the term "redacted" made me laugh. He really should consult the dictionary.
I meant to say "deliberately censored"; Okay Mister Smartypants?
All the documents obtained by the Bari legal team show is a sloppy investigation, not a COINTELPRO operation. Sloppy investigations driven by police prejudice and groupthink are all too common and many people have been victimized by them. That does not make them victims of COINTELPRO operations.
And you base this conclusion on what? A careful and/or personal investigation of these documents? Years of knowledge of how to run a police investigation? Inner knowledge of how the FBI operates?
If this is just an example of sloppy police work, then why was the FBI involved at all? Why were pages and pages of documents censored? Why were pages and pages of documents denied until the Bari legeal team obtained them through the FOIA? How do you explain the "Bombing School"?
(In case anyone isn't familiar with the "Bombing School", the FBI ran a simulation of a crime scene involving a replica of the bomb that was placed in Bari's car as well as Bari's car itself on Louisiana -Pacific land in Mendocino County a month *BEFORE* the bombing. Did Sweeney just casually call up L-P and the FBI and announce his intentions if he acted alone? Does any sane person believe that he WOULD? If Sweeney were insane (which would explain insane actions) why would the FBI decline to warn Bari of the threat?
The theory that the Bari bombing was a COINTELPRO operation underestimates their sophistication. The government has much more effective and less risky means of killing someone at their disposal than pipe bombs. The theory that Sweeney or Sutley were recruited by the feds for an assassination is absurd on its face. The risks of involving either of them would have been too great. The feds are often pretty stupid, but they're not THAT stupid.
Let me see if I get this straight: "The feds are pretty stupid", but "the theory that the Bari bombing was a COINTELPRO underestimates their sophistication" How am I to reconcile this contradiction Atheist?
There is no such absurdity in hypothesizing that Sweeney could have been recruited (or perhaps, more accurately, coerced) by the FBI. If the FBI approached Sweeney, privately, and threatened him with death or life in a maximum security prison (based on his past) unless he acted on their behalf, I can EASILY see him doing their bidding, particularly if they manipulated his anger towards Bari. Perhaps they also knew of his desire to become "respectable". Please, enlighten me Atheist, how is this absurd?" The government makes deals with felons in exchange for information about other "criminals" like this quite often.
The risks of involving either of them would have been too great.
How the hell do you know? Maybe Sweeney isn't as incompetent as you think. More to the point, the bomb was supposed to KILL Bari (it didn't work as planned) and Darryl Cherney wasn't supposed to have been in the car. The crime would have been a lot more successful if Judi Bari were killed and no witnesses were present!
The COINTELPRO theory fits the self-important notions of the Bari cultists. . .
Yes, it does, but that doesn't mean that the theory isn't accurate. Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinski really happened; it also served the self-important notions of the Republican Party.
. . . so they continue to promote it based on flimsy "evidence" as a way of promoting themselves.
What "flimsy" evidence is that Atheist? Would you care to specifically DOCUMENT it?
It has the added benefit of providing a ready-made smear against anyone who displeases them and a ready-made scapegoat for whatever misfortunes they may face.
I agree completely with this sentence, which is one reason why I have distanced myself from what you and others call the "Judi Bari cult", but that STILL doesn't disprove the involvement of COINTELPRO. Of course, DENYING the involvement of CONTELPRO serves the Bruce Anderson qult equally well!
The cruel smear campaign against Sutley waged by Bari and her groupies was a key factor leading to the falling-out between Bari and Anderson.
I don't recall claiming that Sutley was given fair treatment by Bari's followers. As I recall, Anderson continued to participate in the smears against Sutley after he and Bari's falling out. It was only AFTER the "Sweeney Did It" hypothesis that Anderson owned up to that.
The line between "sabotage" and "violence" gets pretty thin or obliterated entirely when someone happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bari was not ethically opposed to blowing up inanimate objects. When asked about a recent powerline bombing in the months leading up to Redwood Summer, she said "desperate times call for desperate measures."
This is a gross oversimplification and conflation of Bari's opinions which evolved over time. Bari may have indeed uttered the quote about the Santa Cruz power lines, but that was well before the bombing.
Bari renounced tree spiking a month BEFORE the bombing, not because of its ineffectiveness as a tactic--which Bari would later argue (in 1993), but because of its perception as anti-worker by loggers and mill workers.
I am not aware of any approving statements made by Bari about "blowing things up" AFTER the bombing, but if you are referring to the Okerstrom feller-bunchers that caught fire due to misuse by their own logging practices (which was first admitted to by Bruce Anderson as I state publicially here, but is something that he later conveniently forgot). That Bari would wax positive about the misfortunes of a gyppo logging firm hardly equals support for "blowing things up".
In 1993, Bari wrote two very detailed arguments against tree spiking, and in 1994, she wrote an article questioning many of the aspects of Monkeywrenching!
Ongerth's contention that the "Sweeney did it" camp is trying to discredit her as a victim of the bombing is strange. She clearly was the victim of an attempt on her life.
This is dishonesty. I said that the "Sweeney [acted alone and] did it" camp is trying to discredit Bari AS THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY.
She also did and said some really stupid things that brought suspicion on herself.
No one disputes that.
Ongerth told an obvious lie when he stated that the bombing investigation was "not a 'bombing investigation', carried out by police, the FBI, or any other recognized authorities; it was a campaign waged by Bruce Anderson, et al. who had a history of personal attacks against Bari & co." Does Ongerth really think that Bruce Anderson was conducting the bombing investigation and not the Oakland cops? Also, Anderson was firmly on record as sympathetic to Bari while the cops were investigating her.
No Atheist, I did no such thing. You said, and I quote:
She and Sweeney also directed her followers not to co-operate with the bombing investigation.
By this I assumed you meant the "investigation" called for by Bruce Anderson and the others he cajoled into participating in. It was not at all clear from the context of your statement that you were referring to the FBI and OPD investigation. Think before you accuse pal.
If the bomb was placed in Bari's car in Mendocino County, it is within the jurisdiction of the Mendocino DA's office. Vroman has clearly not done all he could to get to the bottom of the Bari bombing case. Maybe he is an idiot, as Ongerth suggests.
I do not know enough about Vroman to draw a conclusion about him or his motivations, but as far as the jurisdictional matters go, there has to be CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that the bomb was placed in the car within the limits of Mendocino County for the DA to act, AND usually the crime has to have occurred within a certain period of time (I suspect that DAs have some leeway to determine the appropriate statutte of limitations if not explicitely stated within the letter of the law).
The theory that Sweeney placed the bomb in the car in Ukiah is a HYPOTHESIS. It doesn't necessarily have any legal standing (though it could; I am not a lawyer or a criminologist, so I wouldn't claim to be an expert).
Returning to the unwarranted personal attack on me and the IWW, I would like to point out that Atheist and/or Bruce Anderson hurl accusation after accusation of "smear tactics", lies, and groupthink, at Bari's followers, but it's obvious to me that they are no less guilty of the same. Shame on both sides of this vile squabble!
To ignore this evolution in thought is sloppy at best and dishonest at worst.
As a last-ditch attempt to salvage the conspiracy theory, Ongerth allows that Mike Sweeney may have indeed placed the bomb but was merely a "patsy" or "stooge" for the FBI if he did. There is an ironic symmetry between that theory and the speculation by Bruce Anderson that Sweeney may have been a long-time FBI informant dating back to his time as a violence-prone Stanford Maoist. Under the Anderson theory, investigation of Sweeney for the bombing was quashed by the feds to protect their informant. Of course, Mr. Ongerth by his own standards disallows any use of Anderson's ideas to support his own.
In referring to Bari's "Timber Wars ('Who Bought Steve Talbot')", Mr. Ongerth does not directly state that he agrees with Bari's contention that Talbot was "bought", however, he denounces the accusation that the piece was a "shrill personal attack on Steve Talbot" as "an utterly unfair accusation." In the next paragraph he states "NOWHERE in these two paragraphs do I state that I agree with Judi Bari--that Steve Talbott was 'bought'..." Well, not explicitly, perhaps. The whole thing comes off as a big piece of double talk. The innuendo-laden smear against Talbot's integrity is completed with the statement that "....Judi Bari was justified in asking why Talbot didn't investigate the FBI, the Oakland Police, Maxxam, Louisiana Pacific, the Sahara Club, and various right-wing wise use groups in northern California." The fact is, Talbot did investigate these groups because he was sympathetic to Bari's case. The contention that he didn't is a lie. Sweeney didn't come onto his radar until late in the investigation. The theory that Sweeney placed the bomb won out over the others based on its merits. And Sweeney had the knowledge and logistical capability to construct and place the bomb without outside help (Talbot, AVA interview, 1/19/2000).
Operation Thermcon was a sting for entrapment of Earth Firsters by offering thermite (not an explosive) and acetylene blowtorches for sabotaging power lines. Sting operations are common for everything from prostitution to bribery and they often fall under entrapment. That doesn't mean that the government is about to start killing Johns and grafters.
There is no evidence that the bomb was placed in Bari's car in Oakland, as implied by Mr. Ongerth. The timeline of Bari's trip from Mendocino County to Oakland and the bomb timer indicate Mendocino (Bari's property or the MEC) as the place where the bomb was placed in the car. So much for the Oakland "coincidence."
The claim that "internal PALCO and LP memos calling for and praising violence against Earth First are a matter of public record" is also false. The plaintiffs in the Bari case tried to present memoranda from the PR firm hired by PALCO and LP on tying support for the Forests Forever initiative to Earth First as advocating violence against Earth First. Likewise,
leaflets spoofing Earth First positions originating from Mothers Watch and other "wise-use" groups were presented by the plaintiffs as evidence for "conspiracy." Fortunately, that faux pas did not derail the more meritorious parts of the plaintiffs' case, to wit, Bari was denied equal protection and a thorough and fair investigation. Bogus publications spoofing opponents positions are also, by he way, a favored tactic of Earth First.
Mr. Ongerth's attempt to justify blanket dismissal of Alexander Cockburn's positions because of his position on global warming is ridiculous. Would Mr. Ongerth be taking that position if he and Cockburn were on the same side of this issue?
Mr. Ongerth's statements that the theory that Sweeney placed the bomb is merely a "plausible speculation" on the part of Bruce Anderson, and that the notion that Sweeney acted alone is a "bizarre conclusion not supported by any evidence, but based solely on Anderson's personal assessment of Judi Barri's imperfect character....sullied further by bitterness and personal bias," is also patently false. Anderson's conclusions are based on factual information uncovered by Steven Talbot, Ed Gehrman, and others, and not a personal assessment of Bari's character. Anderson was thoroughly in Bari's camp and saw her as the probable victim of right wing/timber/anti-choice vigilante action until factual evidence overwhelmed that notion. Anderson's falling out with Bari occurred after he started getting trashed by her for deviating from the "politically correct" line on the bombing. Bitterness may be an understandable reaction for a journalist that realizes he's been duped and fed lies, then publicly trashed, by his "friend" who he publicly supported.
As stated above, Sweeney had the expertise and logistical capability to construct and place the bomb by himself. The idea that Sweeney needed to be involved in some sort of government conspiracy to be able to place the bomb is black helicopter thinking.
The "ghost written" fake missives from Bari and Sweeney (AVA 12/31/03, 1/7/04, 1/14/04) referred to by Mr. Ongerth are obviously satirical pieces written in Anderson's voice. If anybody takes their bylines seriously, I pity them. They do not detract from the AVA's overall contribution to the discussion of the Bari bombing case, unless you're looking for a cheap shot like the one Mr. Ongerth is trying to pull.
Typewriter forensics has had its validity upheld in criminal courts, despite what is implied by Mr. Ongerth. In addition to print type and mechanical idiosyncracies, typographic styles are used to help trace authorship. Typewriter forensics is a more precise practice than art history.
The "Lord's Avenger" letter revealed detailed and accurate information about the construction of the bomb not known to the public at the time that authenticates the ties between its author and the bomb. The "Argus" snitch letter from the year before yields detailed information about Bari's personal life. The "Lord's Avenger" and "Argus" letters are linked by typewriter forensics to each other and to business correspondence known to originate from Sweeney.
Okay, let's take "redacted" to mean "deliberately censored." Then Mr. Ongerth's reference to "heavily censored FBI memos later redacted by the Bari legal team" means that there was a second round of censorship at the hands of the Bari legal team. I am such a smartypants.
The COINTELPRO theory was not upheld by the Oakland jury. The judgement was based strictly on equal protection, and first and fourth amendment issues.
The FBI was tipped off that "heavies" were headed for Santa Cruz for a "heavy action" as Bari headed south from Mendocino. The FBI at the bombing scene should be no surprise. Their initial notion that Bari was deliberately transporting the bomb may have originated from this tip. There is speculation that Sweeney called in the tip.
Ongerth fudges about the "Bombing School". The "Bomb School" is a regular feature of law enforcement classes at College of the Redwoods.
The bomb school bomb was a pipe bomb generically similar to the one in Bari's car, but not a replica. Referring to the bomb school car as a replica of Bari's car is also a stretch. That the bomb school pipe bomb should be similar to the one placed in Bari's car should come as no surprise, since dud bombs found at the LP office in Cloverdale a month before the bombing, and at the old Santa Rosa airport in 1980 were of similar design and would provide a logical model. The most accurate replica of the Bari bomb was constructed by none other than Mike Sweeney.
More evidence that the bomb was not a feddy bomb: 1) crude pipe bombs are not their M. O., they're more high tech, 2) the bomb had a defect in construction that saved Bari's life (the end cap blew off, just like the 1980 bomb), indicating the work of an amateur, 3) the specific arming mechanism (timed motion fuse) suited Sweeney's purposes (get the scene of the crime away from Mendocino), not the feds'.
The analogy between the government leaning on a suspect to become an informant and leaning on someone to become an assassin is absurd. Coercing someone to become an assassin would result in the worst situation possible from the government's point of view: an antagonistic and fearful operative with guilty knowledge. Then they'd have to either buy them off big time and provide new identities or kill them. I believe Sweeney's alive, well, and living above board in Mendocino.
The flimsy "evidence" for the COINTELPRO theory is what Mr. Ongerth is providing.
A cult is defined as a group formed around the premise of the infallibility of a person or an idea. That describes the Bari groupies pretty well. Does Mr. Ongerth really think that agreeing with Anderson on certain issues conflates him with infallibility? Or is his reference to a "Bruce Anderson cult" just some pathetic sophomoric name-calling?
The timeline of Bari statements cited by Ongerth about monkeywrenching and sabotage supports the contention that she was not above suspicion for carrying a bomb at the time of the bombing.
Ongerth clearly originally stated that the "Sweeney did it" camp tries to discredit Bari as a victim of the bombing, not "AS THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY", as he later tried to claim. That is transparent dishonesty that anyone can bust if they look back in this thread. This is an instance of Ongerth practicing dishonesty about his prior dishonesty. Meta-dishonesty?
Ongerth tells a whopping lie when he says that "It was not at all clear from the context of your statement [about Bari's followers being instructed not to co-operate with the bombing investigation] that you were referring to the FBI and OPD investigation." The topic sentence of the paragraph that contains the sentence that Mr. Ongerth so egregiously took out of context states, "The Oakland cops and the FBI barfed the bombing investigation in the most unprofessional and sophomoric way possible." Context not clear? More meta-dishonesty!
There is plenty of credible evidence that the bomb was placed in the car in Mendocino County (timeline of Bari's trip to Oakland and time-delayed bomb arming mechanism) and there is no statute of limitations for attempted homicide, so Mr. Ongerth's attempts to provide cover for Vroman are pretty weak.
The more Mr. Ongerth tries to rationalize his weak arguments the more ridiculous he becomes.
The FBI has tremendous motivation to keep their long term cointelpro campaign against Judi Bari's memory. Anderson and Cockburn and a couple of obscure wingnuts are harder to figure out why they are echoing this. Jealousy? Double agents? Psychological dysfunction? Whatever the cause, they work to serve the State, whether intended or not.
Anderson is now in bed with the ultra-right wing neo-cons with a shoddy book promoting his lies. Real book publishers don't get millions from a foundation that made money on armaments -- but the book echoing Anderson's tired, evidence less nonsense is published by a propaganda outlet.
It's hard for many to imagine that a "leftist" is able to string together so many lies in short sequence, lies that take a much longer time to refute. Virtually all of the lies the cointelpro people posted to this page were debunked many years ago, but it's like arguing with christian fundamentalists -- repetition becomes more important than reality. And in this particular case, it is highly likely that those posting this stuff are paid to do so, there's no emotional attachment to the lying.
Even Bruce Anderson's brother, who used to write for AVA, states that this "sweeney did it" claim is a blatant lie.
http://www.andersonfordistrict5.net/documents/judi_bari.html
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